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Lando Norris’s hopes of making further inroads into Max Verstappen’s Formula One championship lead took a blow on Saturday after qualifying a lowly 17th for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
A yellow flag shown on Norris’s final lap in the opening stage of qualifying forced him to slow down before he eventually abandoned the effort and returned to the pits.
His engineer, Will Joseph, was quick to apologize on the radio. Norris said afterward on Sky Sports that he was “just unlucky” with the timing of the flag.
It was the first time this season McLaren had failed to get both cars through to Q3, acting as a halt to the recent momentum that has been growing around the team and Norris.
However, the nature of the yellow flag also left McLaren seeking clarification from the FIA as to why it was shown. It was costly for Norris and, potentially, his championship hopes as Verstappen bids to widen the 62-point gap on Sunday from sixth on the grid.
“There was a situation which ideally, and I think by the regulations, shouldn’t have happened,” Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, told Sky Sports. “We paid the price.”
Why the yellow flag was shown
The tricky nature of the Azerbaijan street circuit means mistakes are common. As seen throughout practice and qualifying, yellow flags are frequently shown for drivers who make mistakes and need to use the run-off areas. It means those setting times later in each qualifying stage risk having a lap compromised by a late yellow or red flag.
Both McLarens had to run again in Q1 after their opening laps left them in danger of elimination. Oscar Piastri managed to get in a second lap with his used set of tires, placing him P3, and Norris was on course to be in a similar ballpark after high levels of track evolution led to a flurry of improved times.
Esteban Ocon’s tap of the wall at Turn 5 caused a left-rear puncture, leaving him to crawl around the remainder of the lap at slow speed in low gears. Yellow flags were shown occasionally in response to him nearing corners, as were waved white flags, the usual signal for a slow-moving car on the track.
Esteban Ocon’s collision with the wall that gave him a puncture!#F1 #Formula1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/UzSOKICpjE
— Extreme Cars (@extremecars__) September 14, 2024
Approaching Turn 16, Ocon moved to the left-hand side of the track and cut down the inside before the apex. He was warned that Norris was on a timed lap and was alerted as the McLaren driver approached from behind through Turn 17 and approaching Turn 18.
After Norris came through the downhill Turn 15, a flashing yellow panel was shown at the bottom of the hill near Turn 16. Although it had stopped flashing when he reached the corner, he had already lifted in response to it as required by the regulations. The lift cost Norris around 25-30 km/h.
But at this point, Norris was still on course to reach Q2. Nor did the mistake at Turn 16, where he ran a little wide over the curb, cost him a sizable amount of time. It was another flashing yellow panel shown for Ocon approaching the high-speed Turn 18 that forced Norris to do a bigger lift, costing him 100 km/h on his normal speed through that corner. At this point, the lap was lost.
“I had a yellow flag,” Norris said on the radio. “Can we go again or not?”
“No,” came the instant reply from Joseph. “We’ll have to box, mate, we’ll have to box.”
Norris peeled into the pits on the left-hand side of the track and accepted his fate, qualifying in 17th place.
“Mate, I’m sorry, they shouldn’t have done that,” Joseph added as Norris was wheeled back into his garage.
Should it have been a yellow?
This is the question Stella and McLaren had for the FIA immediately after the session.
Throughout all of the FIA’s championships, a white flag typically indicates a slow car on the circuit. In F1, the white flag tells drivers to be aware, but unlike a yellow flag, it does not require that they slow down.
“We were discussing now with the FIA as to why a yellow flag was displayed at that moment in time, which was extremely, extremely costly for us, in the economy of this weekend,” Stella said to Sky immediately after coming off the pit wall at the end of the session.
He said that McLaren didn’t warn Norris of the yellow because it was shown at the last minute, and a check on the team’s tools confirmed that it was a yellow flag on the panel and not white.
“We were in conversation with the FIA as to why that happened, because the yellow flag isn’t necessary when it’s just a slow car, it’s off-line,” Stella said. He did give the caveat that “everyone tries their best.”
Had a white flag been shown for Ocon, Norris would have been able to stay committed to the corner and would likely have advanced to Q2.
Norris called the timing that cost him in qualifying “unlucky.” (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
The decision to show a yellow is always at the discretion of race control and the marshals at each post. Ocon was on the inside at the approach to the high-speed left-hander but slowed right down in first gear to avoid being anywhere near the apex. That said, as a blind corner where apex speeds are nearing 290 km/h, the yellow may have been deemed the safer option than the white flag.
Regardless, it was a frustrating setback for Norris. After qualifying, he did not seem overly frustrated, knowing it was nothing he could have done better. But he was still unsure about his chances of fighting back in the race.
“I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” Norris said. “Following is pretty much impossible around here, and overtaking is, I think, a lot worse than everyone thinks.
“I hope I’m wrong, of course, and there’s plenty of chances. But I’m not expecting so.”
Top photo: James Sutton/Getty Images
